“That wasn’t a bad display.” The Mayor commented in Hurricane’s apartment that evening. “It was a bit short, though.”
“There wasn’t really much we could do.” Concorde shrugged as he meandered around the room, still feeling the adrenaline.
“Regardless, you went down well enough with the crowd so that’ll do. Are you done yet, lad?” The Mayor added to his unicorn aid, who’d spent the last fifteen minutes dividing the one thousand bit payment equally into 3 bags at Hurricane’s request.
“Nearly done, sir.” He replied, checking he’d defiantly counted the payment out right.
“How’d the rest of the day go?” Maffett asked, having not had time to explore the festivities for herself.
“The Ferris wheel broke but besides that nothing really happened.” He said as his aid levitated the three bags onto the table, dropping the solitary spare coin in the middle.
“Say, you were in the original Red Hawks, right?” The aid asked Hurricane, who just nodded. “Is it true Hanriot put Vickers in hospital?”
The almost innocent question seemed to send Hurricane into a state of shock, though the Aid didn’t seem to notice as he continued talking.
“My dad always told me Hanriot was his favourite of the Red Hawks but he just seemed to stop all of a sudden and he always wondered why. Was it to do with Vickers’ accident or was it a personal matter, he always thought it was the thing that led to the Red Hawks disbanding.”
Concorde and Maffett listened to the Aid as he spoke, but neither could help but notice that Hurricane’s look of shock was gradually turning to anger. The Mayor seemed uncertain what to do, so Maffett decided to step in.
“Look, mate, we need to do a, y’know, debrief on today’s performance.” She said, stepping between Hurricane and the Aid before the older Pegasus did anything rash. “It’s something we’d prefer to do in private.”
“Very well.” The Mayor injected, glad to find a way to get his aid to be quiet. “Come on, colt.” He added before heading to the door.
“I couldn’t get an autograph first, could I?” The aid quickly asked, before the Mayor grabbed his tail and pulled him out of the door.
“Maybe later!” Concorde called after the pair as they left, Maffett pushing the door closed with her magic before the pair turned to Hurricane. The older Pegasus looked unsure of himself and couldn’t bring himself to look at either of them, instead looking at a spot on the floor in front of his hooves. He did eventually look up at them.
“You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to.” Concorde said simply, suspecting Hurricane was still harbouring some pain deep down.
“I might as well.” Hurricane sighed. “You’ll likely find out eventually anyway. Just wait here.” He added before heading into the bed room. Concorde and Maffett looked at each other as they heard him hustling through a bag and a few moments later Hurricane returned, carrying a large book which he put on the desk before opening it.
Inside was an album of old black and white photographs, showing a group of Pegasus in matching uniforms, as well as two unicorns and an Earth pony. Some showed the entire group stood together, others of the Pegasus performing various death defying stunts and some were small family occasions, including two Pegasus with a new born foal.
“The Red Hawks has been my entire life. My parents were the head line fliers, Hanriot and Sopwith Hawker. No other Pegasus was willing to do the things they did.” He said, showing Concorde and Maffett a picture of the Syncro Pair that had been in the book Maffett had found. “I always wanted to fly with my parents, be as good as they were, even if my own talents were elsewhere. So many ponies told me I should just go into weather control, but I never wanted to and my parents and friends happily invited me to join the team.” He added with a smile, remembering the day he officially became a member of the team.
“Sadly, tragedy eventually came” Hurricane continued, indicating to a picture of two smiling Pegasus, one in uniform which the younger ponies recognised as Hanriot while the other wore a leather helmet with goggles, his coat appearing to be fairly light, judging from the old photo.
“Vickers was my dad’s best friend and my god father.” Hurricane said, leaning back. Maffett quickly lifted up the page and noticed there weren’t any more photos. “Together, they would work out some of the more complicated stunts and practice them together. One such move was the Double Twister, where two Pegasus would fly in a helical circle at ever increasing speeds, almost like a Fly Wheel. During a practice run, my dad was caught by a strong gust of wind and thrown into Vickers, causing them both to crash heavily. Vickers broke his neck on landing.”
Concorde and Maffett looked at him in shock as the events ran through Hurricane’s head. He remembered seeing them both crash and being concerned for them. He remembered the relief of seeing his dad getting back up, before his heart dropped as Vickers didn’t move. What he remembered most was his dad’s reactions, first thinking Vickers was joking before concern entered his voice, which eventually turned to pledging and begging for his friend to wake up.
Hurricane shuck the thought from his head, his small audience silently encouraging him to carry on.
“My dad was inconsolable and blamed himself for the accident. It’s sad to see someone who was so bold and fearless suddenly change after being involved in an accident that killed a friend. Nothing my mum, myself or my team mates said could convince him otherwise and things went downhill pretty quickly.”
“So the team split up?” Concorde found himself asking.
“Aye.” Hurricane nodded. “Spit was the first to go. I remember she was in floods of tears when she told me she was leaving, but she never told my why she decided to leave. After that, everypony just went their separate ways. My mum couldn’t bear to be with my dad in his depressed state and they eventually divorced. I stayed with my dad until two years ago when he died.”
“So you thought you’d revive the team?” Maffett asked after a moment.
“Of course.” Hurricane said, his voice returning to its stronger pitch. “The Red Hawks were the best fliers Equestria had ever seen and I’ll be damned if I let that name go out with a wimpier. Speaking of which,” Hurricane continued, closing the album with a thump. “I need to send some letters around, see if I can get us some more performances or even some more team members. You two can decide who gets the last coin.”
With that, Hurricane went back into his bedroom, returning almost immediately with several letters and flying straight out the window towards the town’s post office.
Concorde and Maffett regarded each other for a moment, digesting what they’d been told.
“Satisfied?” Concorde asked, which took Maffett by surprise.
“In what way?”
“That you now know?”
“Well, like he said, we’d have found out eventually. But at least now we know what we’re up against.”
“How’d you mean?”
“We’re the new Red Hawks, we have a hay of a reputation to live up to now. You up for it?” Concorde said excitedly, as if they were about the take their first steps on a big adventure.
“Well, I’m here, so sure.” Maffett smiled.
“Awesome!” Concorde smiled. “Also, dibs on the extra bit.”
“No way! I want it!”
“How ‘bout we flip it, then?”
“Oh alright.” Maffett smiled. “Heads or tails?”
“Tails, tails, never fails!”
Maffett rolled her eyes, knowing Concorde would always pick tails. She levitated the coin and threw it into the air with enough spin to blur the image. It landed on the table and the pair leaned forwards to see which way up it landed.
“Ah, f***.”